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| Welcome to Recife... |
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| View from Olinda towards Recife |
This is about as far East as it gets when travelling around
South America. Recife, meaning ‘reef’ sits almost at the very Eastern tip of
Brazil. A huge city of high-rises lies at the foot of a small hill, where the
main attraction of this port is located: Olinda, meaning ‘how pretty’.
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| Oldest Planetarium in South America |
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| Olinda house |
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| Olinda Street Scene |
And pretty it still is. Olinda is a town of dozens of
churches and monasteries with narrow cobble stoned streets which lead along
steep inclines to yet another hill top church and planetarium (German built and
the first of its kind in South America). Small parks shaded by large trees,
where colourful birds and small monkeys sound off, provide relief from the
tropical heat. Houses are one or two stories high, and painted in every colour
imaginable.
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| From the ridiculous... |
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| to the sublime... |
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| Monkeys at the town plaza |
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| Hat seller |
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| Olinda artisans... |
Olinda lends itself to strolling and browsing the many art
and craft establishments. Its many colonial buildings make it an artist’s
delight. One may take a moment’s respite from the heat inside lofty churches or
small restaurants hidden amongst lush palms and hibiscus.
Many churches are
loaded with gold leaf, some are starkly Spartan, all are cool…
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| Monastry in Olinda |
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| CHoir in a church - reserved for the sugar barons, to keep them separated from the 'plebes'. They had their own cross up there, and seats one on side for women, on the other for men. |
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| More Gold Leaf... |
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| Looks as if these clerics offended somebody... |
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| Cloister inside a city church |
Recife itself lines the long Atlantic beaches, which are
protected by either man-made or natural reefs, and from Olinda’s perspective it
looks quite attractive in a ocean side city kind of way.
As it is located at the
mouth of a delta, the city is criss-crossed with canals – all of them polluted
– which are lined with colourful colonial houses, a few domed theatres and
official palaces, an old jail whose cells now serve as arts and crafts stores,
the required number of churches and chapels and the never missing favelas –
slums.
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| Across the Canal |
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| Old Jail, now mercado |
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| Herr Moritz Nassau Siegen, who played a role in governing here a long time ago, but became famous through founding settlements in what is now known as Mauritius, the Island off East Africa, which was named after this man |
Half a dozen bridges connect the many islands on which the
city rests. Some call it the Venice of South America, some liken it to
Amsterdam – and a few river cruises navigate along the murky canals to prove
the point.
I chose the pedestrian way to explore downtown Recife somewhat,
however, the city did not spell ‘welcome’ in capital letters. Streets thronged
with people, hundreds of rickety stalls offered everything from bras to
coconuts and plastic toys vied for space on the sidewalks, many beggars – some
in wheelchairs – tried to beg their daily sustenance, every imaginable bit of refuse and garbage
decorated ever available surface, the odor of urine mixed with the scent of
garlic, hostile glances prevailed amongst a few ‘bom dia’ from locals; not
quite the place to comfortably blend into the scene, even when trying
–unsuccessfully – to blend in. One passenger had his backpack slashed open
whilst walking amongst the crowd. Another male passenger was attacked for his
gold necklace, which a thief tried unsuccessfully to tear off slightly injuring the man’s neck.
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| River Side favela |
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| Recife Street scape |
It just did not
‘feel’ right to me, and I made a bee line for ‘home’, the ship.
But, the city ‘tries’…Carnival is just around the corner,
many plywood barricades surrounded parks and important buildings to protect
them from rambunctious revellers, some streets started to fly colourful flags,
many buildings were ‘sanitized’, and new construction of port buildings were
underway. But, despite many coats of pastel paint giving a cheerful air to a
number of historic buildings, graffiti seemed to be still the decoration of
choice.
Olinda, how pretty, seemed like a serene oasis in the midst
of a modern day metropolis in the making. Unfortunately public bus connections
were outside walking distance from the Recife port terminal, thus making a quick
ride back to Olinda inconvenient, and taxi rides could evolve into
tragi-comedies of misunderstanding and escalating prices the further one is
removed from the ship terminal. Locals warned of riding the public bus as a
‘obvious stranger not understanding Portuguese’, as strangers have not
developed the sixth sense necessary to timely flee potentially dangerous
situations, when buses could be attacked, transit areas of protests or get
stuck in slums.
One files Olinda away for future reference…with luck it will
remain relatively untouched and retain its lovely quiet character for its
residents and future visitors.
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| SImple Church in Recife |
